Appeal No. 95-3674
Application 08/122,981
OPINION
35 U.S.C. § 112, second paragraph
In our opinion, one of ordinary skill in the art would
interpret claim 7 as directed to a method of making a multiple
stage thermoelectric device as evidenced by the steps of
"providing," "fabricating," "incorporating," and "mating." The
fact that the method is claimed as using a nanoporous
semiconductor material in the fabrication does not create any
ambiguity. The rejection of claims 7-13 is reversed.
35 U.S.C. § 103
Appellants argue (Brief, pages 4-5):
Yokotani et al. discloses a composite structure where the
porous component disclosed is not a semiconductor material
but is in actuality function [sic] as insulators. As
disclosed on column 2, lines 63-66 in the summary portion
of the Yokotani et al reference: "each semiconductor
element consists of a porous material or gas permeable
support particles and a thermoelectric semiconductive
material supported by said support particles."
Claim 7 calls for "providing a nanoporous semiconductor
material" and then "fabricating p-type and n-type
thermoelectric semiconductor elements from the nanoporous
semiconductor material." The "fabricating" step does not
specify any details of the construction and is broad enough to
include nanoporous material on support particles if that
construction is possible.
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